Just a chapter that strays from the main plot for the moment. I've been waiting for awhile for this to happen, may you find giddy joy and happiness in this chapter's events.

Part 2 may be a lot shorter than I thought, lol. We are already almost nearing the end of Part 2. Soon Part 3. :D

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Falling to Rise

Chapter 22

"Words have meaning and names have power"

Seto was up early, before the sun fully rose above the trees, or the light peaked through the leaves. Breakfast was made and eaten in a flash.

"Make sure Venir gets plenty of sleep, and that they all eat food."

"Roger that!" Adam saluted and waved as Jason led Tyler, Ian, Seto and Jerome out into the forest.

"Hey Seto, earlier you were having trouble walking, so I made this for you, to help you in case you need it, it's also good for self-defence." Jerome held out a hand-carved staff, taller than Seto and smoothly shaped. Seto took it in his hand, it was heavy but light in his hand.

"Thank you!" Seto found the staff actually did help him, he's always lived in a sandy home and even after the short time he spent in Emedo, and the even shorter time in Duhita, it still felt uncomfortable to traverse across hills and forests. Especially forests, so many roots to trip over, and branches to crouch under.

"Ok, let's just make this clear, the reason I'm letting you guys come is not entirely because Tyler trusts you, but because I realized shortly after I realized you were Tyler's childhood friend, that Seto here is also the cousin of one of our benefactors. Though secret, he's an important asset and you all likely found out about us through him." Jason spoke up as he lead us through the maze of trees.

"Well that's true," Jerome snorted, Seto noticed how at ease Jerome was at traversing through the forests, which was understandable having lived in one. Ian looked to be doing fine too, but that was also understandable, the man was good at a lot of things it seemed, but terrifyingly angry all the time. It seemed it was only him who was out of breath.

Seto found out how much Jerome's staff helped, even though he still was unfit, and maybe that's just how he would always remain, however it greatly improved his ability to keep up.

In just over half an hour Jason stopped walking, "So up ahead is the base, just don't wander off and we'll be fine. The Captain though, he could be anywhere, but just follow me, we'll find him." Jason continued walking and so they left the cover of the forest into a small clearing with a crystal, clear lagoon ahead. The vast deep blue ocean was past that. Seto gasped, the view was beautiful!

The clearing had tents and decent sized stone buildings spaced out. Even though it was barely after sunrise quite a few people were already here and moving about.

"Alright, this is it come on, we should start looking for the Captain this way--" Suddenly their tour guide was literally snatched away, "Gah!" Seto watched as this strong but short man, about as tall as Seto pull Jason away by the arm.

"Sub! Stop, I need to find the Captain, please let go!" the man, Sub, let go of Jason's arm and turned to glare.

The man had bright green eyes and a shirt to match them, brown hair the same shade as Adam's and an awful scar around his neck that stretched down and disappeared under his shirt. He opened his mouth to speak but no words came out, he just moved his mouth as if speaking.

"I know, I know, I get it. But this is important, I need to find the Captain for these people--No! I'm not skipping work, this is just kind of impor-- Sub it would only take a little wh--" The voiceless man kept moving his mouth as Jason responded to him and every now and then changed what he was saying. It seemed Jason could understand the man, even though how he could was a mystery to Seto.

"Just follow me guys, I can take over from here, we'll just let Jason handle his situation while mommy Sub scolds him," Tyler waved for Seto, Jerome, and Ian to follow him. Sub glared at Tyler and mouthed something to him which Tyler didn't see as he began to walk off. Reluctantly Seto turned away to follow.

"Don't worry guys! I'll join you after I sort this out!" Jason called to them.

"Hey, why don't I give you guys a tour while we wait for Jason to come back, maybe we'll find the Captain while we're at it too." Tyler said.

"We really should focus on the reason why we came here--" Ian began.

"It's fine, the Captain doesn't really leave the camp, and it's not that large of a place. We have all day to find him." Tyler interrupted, "Come on, let's begin the tour!"

Jerome wasn't really into this whole tour thing. It was weird enough to be the only odd on in the group, well Seto was a sorcerer, but atleast he looked human, but him, he was completely out of the ordinary. He found this idea of being in this human camp bothersome, he had no real reason to be here. He was only here more of by force, that and he needed to give Seto his gift, which he thankfully finished last night.

Without realizing it, Jerome found he'd been separated, how great... Though, he guessed he could do with a bit of separation, a bit of Jerome time.

He noticed something that caught his eye. A morvic.

Yes a morvic. In fact, there were a few of them, not a whole lot, but he noticed that one of them was carrying a heavy load of boxes. They towered higher than the Morvic's head, the morvic was steadily making her way over to Jerome and it wasn't until the boxes began to wobble that Jerome realized they would fall. Without thinking Jerome was there in a flash grabbing the one box that from the top, the contents rattled from the inside.

"Ah! Th-thank you!" The morvic peeked her head out from behind the tower of boxes, feathers bridging off from her cheeks down her neck and parts of her hair, along with sharp bird like eyes. She was unlike anyone he had ever seen, and no he hadn't fallen in love with her at first sight, nothing cheesy like that. He was shocked to see someone like her, morvic, but human. Both smells touched his nose, it shocked him.

"Are you a..." He had no way to describe the sight, impossible would be his first choice if he wasn't looking at something that was very, very real. Outrageous that something like this had happened, something like a mix between a human and a morvic, as evil as humans were how could something like this happen. But a miracle, oddly, was another way he'd describe it.

"A human and morvic? Yes, I am," She smiled kindly, "Don't worry, your shock does not offend me, I can understand how unusual it is to see someone like me."

"No! It's not that, it's just uh..." How should he react, it's always been hate humans and be skeptical of morvic.

"It's fine, hey, do you mind carrying that box over here with me. I'm just transferring some boxes over to a new storage building we recently constructed."

"Uh, sure..." Jerome walked with the girl over to a two-story, stone building. The door was already propped open and a man was waiting outside of it.

"Jay, there you are, I was starting to worry, come in and set the boxes down here," The man waved her over and she placed the boxes just outside the building. Simply following her lead, Jerome did the same.

"What's this? A new member to our little team of maintenance? Good to have you!" The human man came and patted Jerome on the back, it was almost more of a slap. Jerome winced at the force.

"Oh, no dad, he just helped me carry a box I almost dropped, he's not with us actually." So this was the girl's father, that meant her mother is most likely a morvic.

"Aw, sad shame, but I thought it was a little weird you were only carrying one box. Thought perhaps my little girl was showing you up in the strength department," he grinned, "she gets that from her mother," he added with a whisper and a wink.

Jerome simply nodded and plastered on an uncomfortable smile. He wasn't use to this idea of human and morvic cooperation, especially on friendly terms. He still found the idea outrageous. The only time he's ever seen it in action was by those Human Morvic Alliance idiots, just south of Chaos in the wood of Duhita. They are another "rebel" group primarily focusing on friendly relations between humans and morvics. But they've lost power in influence with the death ot their founders a few years back. Now their lead by a brash human girl, to high for her britches, and a pushover of a morvic who nobody listens to anyway. The only thing he was good for was patching up a wound.

"Dad!" Jay, the mixed species girl flustered, "Come on before my dad brainwashes you!"

"Brainwash?!" Jerome said incredulously. Could he actually do that!

"Not actually, silly!" she laughed, then dragged Jerome away, back to where he caught the box she dropped, "Ah sorry about that, my dad is really outgoing. You know, I never did ask where you're from--not literally, just you know where you work. I don't think I've ever seen you here, are you new?"

Jerome's eyes widened then he sputtered, "Yes! I'm new....here...new here at this uh place..."

She laughed, "Do you mind if you help me carry a few more boxes over for transfer?"

"S-sure." Jerome nodded, man that was close. He had no one to back him up if anyone found out he does not work here. So he just had to pretend.

~~~~~

Several hours of helping Jay carry boxes back and forth between buildings was easy. He didn't mind the labor, and during the time he listened to Jay talk. It was interesting, he still had no idea how to feel about her. Should he trust her as a morvic, or hate her as a human?

But for now he was done helping, and he was done visiting. Since Seto hasn't been looking for him at all, and he hasn't caught a glimpse of them, Jerome decided it would be fine to head back to Jason's house.

Though, obviously he would take the quick route, not the long trek through the forest.

Jerome walked to where the forest bordered the camp and scampered up the trees. Though the feel of the bark and the scrape of the leaves was certainly different then the trees back home, it was easy to adjust. He just had to be careful, these trees were a lot thinner and weaker than the dark oak's back home.

Jerome was home in a third of the time it took him to walk, jumping through trees beat walking any day, he thought.

The door was unlocked and Jerome entered the home quietly.

"Hello~" Jerome heard Adam's voice rang out from the second floor.

"It's just me." Jerome shouted back.

"Who's me?"

Jerome let out an agitated sigh, "Jerome!"

"Oh! Hold on I'll be right there!"

No, take your time..., there really is no reason for you to come down...Jerome let out another irritate sigh, why did he come back! He forgot there were two stupid humans here.

Adam came down the stair, "Sorry, I was reading a story to Venir."

"Oh," Jerome looked around, "Where's the princess?"

"He took Ava and Glen down to the ocean to let them swim a little."

Jerome nodded and grabbed a piece of chicken from the chest, cooked, since that's all the have here. He pulled out chair from the dining table and slumped down in it, he's getting pretty used to these human traditions--

What is he doing! Growing comfortable like this. Sleeping in beds, sitting at tables, eating cooked food, these were all humans things! And he wanted nothing to do with humans if he had a choice!

Jerome angrily munched on his chicken, even though he was against the idea of eating it, he was hungry after all.

"Are you ok?" Adam asked him.

"Fine," he answered without looking.

"Are you sure? You don't seem--"

"Look, I don't want your pity!" he turned to look at Adam and hissed at him, fully revealing his sharp set of teeth.

He didn't know why he was so worked up today, and it was really messing with his mood.

Jerome kept his head turned away, staring more at the door than at anything else. Anything to not look over in the direction of the human.

"I had a brother," Adam said, he exhaled a deep breath Jerome didn't know he was holding. Adam paused, then said, "I was very close to my brother, but he was assassinated after 2 years away from the kingdom."

"Why...Why are you telling me--"

"After I found out, I had a hard time trusting people. To me, everyone was a traitor, the death hit my father the hardest."

"I can understand, something must've happened to you a long time ago to make you mistrust humans, but I think you would find benefit in giving it another goal. There are good and bad people, it's just a matter of finding the right ones. For me, Ian helped me out a lot and after awhile I could trust people again" Jerome found he was staring into Adam's eyes as he told him this story.

Him trust a human, that just wasn't possible. He wasn't like Adam or even like Jay who was both a morvic and a human. To him, humans were an enemy he's been fighting a long time, there was no way he could ever trust a human.

Never in a million years.

But.

He searched Adam's face for some sign of trickery, for some sort of false emotion, but he could find nothing.

Let's just say he could trust a human. Where would he start?

At that moment, the door opened and in rushed Ava and Glen laughing and smiling, and the princess followed afterwards. He looked haggard and worn.

"Next time! You can take them to the beach and I'll stay here and look after the kid, I can not handle teenage girls!" he gritted his teeth and glared at Adam.

This only made Glen laugh harder, Ava spoke up, "How's Venir?"

"He's asleep, don't worry." Adam answered.

"Hey don't ignore me!"

"Cool, we'll just go check on him," Glen waved in response and both sister left the three of them.

It was awkward silence while Mitch glared at Adam while pulling up a chair beside Jerome. Adam pointed in Jerome's direction and Mitch turned to see the furry man beside him.

Instead of the usual reaction he was expecting, Jerome received a very unusual greeting, "Oh, Jerome, you're here?"

At first he was going to reply with his usual snarly comment, but he stopped himself before he could do that. Instead he stared as he thought something over.

He must've been staring for a long time because his think was interrupted.

"What! Why are you still staring, quit staring will you! Jezz, I only asked a question."

"You...you said my name," no matter how many time Jerome kept thinking about it, he had said his name. Not dog or mutt or even morvic, but Jerome.

"What--" his eyes widened before he stood up and knocked over the chair before his face flushed and he started pointing at Jerome, "I-I did not! You must be sick, or mistaken!"

"No you said his name," Adam interjected.

"I wasn't asking you! And you're supposed to be on my side, back me up here!"

Before long it was an argument between Adam and Mitch on if he said Jerome's name. Jerome on the other hand was thinking.

For the first time since he'd met the idiot, this is definitely the only time he has ever said his name. It was odd to have his name called by someone who hated morvics just as much as he hated humans, but it felt different.

Like a heavy weight had been lightened over his heart.

Could it really be as easy as saying a name to make his anger and hate so easy to quell, even if by only a little bit. Were names just that powerful?

He didn't like having a debt to be paid, but he laughed, it felt easier to breathe, only just a little bit, but easier nonetheless, "Well hello to you too, Mitch!"

Mitch faltered in his words before stuttering, "N-no! Y-you don't have the right t-to say my name! Don't say my name!"

"You going to make me, Mitch?" Jerome grinned, letting his mischievous side tease the flustered prince.

A back and forth argument between the two sparked with Adam laughing in the background. Before long Jerome joined Adam in laughing, a very good-spirited laugh. One of pure happiness, even as the selfish prince had a tantrum and yelled at the both of them.

For today was a good day for Jerome. Maybe Adam was right, maybe he could trust one human or two. Maybe not all of them, but starting with a few was good enough. And names were a lot more powerful than he'd given them credit for, even if Mitch didn't like that, it didn't matter.

Fate had other plans for those two. Something to change the course of history. Something to break every known truth known to human and morvic about each other.

Jerome and Mitch would become friends. A very unlikely, impossible pair of friends.

Awwwww NOT ROMANCE but awwww.

So I had this really good idea, and I think it's super cool. But I'm debating when and how I should tell you guys. But it involves Falling to Rise.

~WrittenDarkness